The peopling of the New World began long before Christopher Columbus was given his commission to make his voyage across the western seas. Arriving in migratory waves, the first people to settle the Americas dates back between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago. These first Americans, over the ages, developed a variety of cultures, society ranging from the massive totalitarian civilization of the Incas in Peru to the hunter-gather of the Eskimo. When Columbus arrived in 1492, not only were millions of people living in the New World, but he encountered, unbeknown to him, a world that was full of rich and complex societies and cultures. Thus the beginning of the history of the Americas and our journey through that past.